The two answers which the Germans understand are of course these: that
we had the sea-power while they had not; and that, because we had it,
we had reaped the full benefit of "first come, first served." But the
third answer, which is much the most important, because it turns upon
the question of right and wrong, is that while the Germans, like the
Spaniards, have grossly abused their imperial powers, we, on the whole,
with all our faults, have not.
There are so many crimes for which the Germans have to answer that this
whole book could not contain the hundredth part of them. But one crime
in one of their oversea possessions will be enough to mention here,
because it was all of a piece with the rest. In German South-West
Africa the Herreros, a brave native people, were robbed if they worked
hard for the German slave-drivers, flogged till their backs were flayed
if they did not, and killed if they stood up for their rights. There
are plenty of German photographs to prove that the modern Germans are
very like the Spaniards of Philip II and utterly unlike the kindly
modern French, Italians, Americans, and British.
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